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Posted By Raj
There is a school of thought that RA is done by the H&S Professional with assistance from technical departments.
Another school is that Risk Assessment must be done by the Line Management of the concerned department with assistance from the H&S Professional.
My question is :
1. Which of the above is the correct methodology?
2. Who signs as the assessor and who as the approver / reviewer?
Please give me your response to the above.
Thanks and warm regards
raj
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Posted By Terry H
Hi Raj, i am not sure if i agree with any of the suggested answers. Risk assessments can be carried out by a variety of peaople, not always managers or those with health & safety knowledge. RA should be carried out by a competant person who is familiar with the activity. That may or may not be managers or health & safety professionals. The person who carries out the risk assessment would usually sign the form.
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Posted By David Gault
The size of some organisations prohibits the H&S Specialist being the risk assessor. If you have a large organisation with perhaps 1000 risk assessments (some large businesses do) then it is unrealistic to expect one person to be the primary assessor. In such cases it is better train others as risk assessors for their department or field of expertise. Whichever route you take the manager takes responsibility (or perhaps the organisation) rather than the H&S Specialist.
The H&S Specialist could still perform consistency and competncy checks.
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Posted By Raj
Thanks guys!
I fully agree that Risk Assessment is a group programme.
However i strongly believe that it is the concerned manager who should be the Lead assessor.
Your comments . . . .
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Posted By Jay Joshi
There isn't any single or one methodology.
The key requirements are that:-
The lead assessor is trained/competent in the risk assessment technique and need not always be the Health and Safety Practitioner
The make up of the team undertaking risk assessments is such that it has the requisite expertise to undertake a "suitable and sufficient" risk assessment. It is rare that an individual will have all the expertise and knowledge, experience etc to undertake a "suitable and sufficient" risk assessment
The approval authority of the risk assessment is generally line management, but the level of the line management approving can depend upon the overall risk rating of the activity that was risk assessed.
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Posted By Coshh Assessor
I believe in being pragmatic about it. What works for one organisation may not work in another.
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Posted By Sanjeev Nadiger
Dear Raj,
Risk assessment is essentially a group activity consisting of cross-functional members. Role of safety professional could be in training the person in risk assessment, participating & guiding the risk assessment sessions.However, it is not essential for safety guys alway lead the session. It goes without saying that 10 heads are better than one head.
Sanjeev Nadiger
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Posted By safetyamateur
Raj, how about this?
The responsibility for ensuring the assessment is done and fits the bill (i.e. suitable & sufficient) rests with line management.
They can decide how best this is done, given the resources.
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Posted By William O'Donnell
The assessment should be carried out by a 'competent' person. Competence has, generally, been defined as the necessary skills, knowledge and experience required to complete a 'suitable & sufficient' assessment. I believe that a competent person need not be an individual, but rather a team which shares it's skills, knowledge and experience.
As for who signs this off, surely this needs to be someone with the authority to implement the control measures?
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Posted By sylvia
Seems to be a view that (a) there must be "a form" and (b) RA records must be signed.
RA findings usually need to be recorded in some retrievable way. Some use forms, some don't.
Forms provide a consistency which may be preferred by organisations (maybe that's why we call them 'organisations'), but in my reading of HSE material I don't see any requirement as such to use a 'form'.
Neither is there any mention in regs, ACOP or guidance of any requirement to sign RA records, whether or not a form is used.
However, it makes sense to record who was involved in a RA. If a team (more than one individual) the signing issue becomes a pointless issue. Just list the names. There is no validity or authentication requirement, so why the obsession with "signing".
Nice clear name(s), so that any queries or reviews can be referred back.
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Posted By Peter F.
You can't retrieve dynamic risk assessments, in there nature they are made on the spot and at the time i.e. fire brigade, police, prison officers etc all need to use dynamic assessments other wise they couldn't carry out their roles.
You may record them later but the recordings would be different to the thoughts behind the decision.
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Posted By sylvia
Quite.
That's covered by the term 'usually' then.
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Posted By justgossip
i am always part of the risk assessment procedure as I have knowledge that no one else has. I involve any one connected with what ever is being assessed as they have knowledge that I do not have.
the MD signs off on it because he carries the can if its not good enough. He must ensure that his processes are adequate and that he delgates to competant persons to do the assessment.
garry
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Posted By Raj
I shall throw another question at you, colleagues.
What is the role of an H&S Practitioner in the Company's RA process?
Pl advice
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Posted By Chris Packham
I work on the basis that whoever controls how the job is done is the person that also controls the risks to those completing the task. Thus risk assessment is really the responsbility of that manager who has local control. It isn't difficult, at least in my particular field of health and safety, to devise systems to help them do this, of course with the support of the health and safety team as appropriate.
Chris
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